CANFIELD WOMAN RESPONDS TO CRUISE INDUSTRY MEASURE

Canfield woman respondsto cruise industry measure
WASHINGTON -- Under scrutiny from Congress, the cruise industry Tuesday announced an agreement with the FBI and U.S. Coast Guard to report serious crimes, including murder, kidnapping, rape and assault. The agreement -- signed by the cruise industry on the night before the congressional hearing -- formalizes what has been a voluntary crime reporting practice and comes as lawmakers are questioning whether the 32 billion industry needs more government oversight. Some crime victims called the agreement too little, too late. Members of International Cruise Victims said they were left out of the process, and some described it as a last-minute attempt to stave off regulation. "We just kind of laugh like, 'Yeah, they're going to do that,'" said Sue DiPiero of Canfield, Ohio, wearing a button with a picture of her 21-year-old son Daniel, who died in May after falling off a Royal Caribbean ship. "You can't believe it's going to happen unless somebody forces them to. They need to be accountable, not just volunteer to do something," she said.
FBI director challengedover Patriot Act abuses
WASHINGTON -- FBI Director Robert Mueller struggled Tuesday to convince skeptical senators that -- despite recent abuses -- the FBI should retain Patriot Act authority to gather telephone, e-mail and financial records without a judge's approval. "The statute did not cause the errors. The FBI's implementation did," the FBI chief told the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., served notice: "We're going to be re-examining the broad authorities we granted the FBI in the Patriot Act." House Judiciary committee members delivered a similar message last week. The Senate panel's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, went further: "The question arises as to whether any director can handle this job and whether the bureau itself can handle the job."
Veterans' care worriesnew surgeon general
WASHINGTON -- The Army's new acting surgeon general said Tuesday she is concerned about long-term morale because the military lacks money to hire enough nurses and mental health specialists to treat thousands of troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. "When the original plans were made, we did not take into consideration we could be in a long war," said Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock. She became surgeon general earlier this month after Kevin Kiley was forced to resign in a scandal over poor treatment of war-wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "We have not been able to do the hiring," Pollock told a House Armed Services subcommittee. She testified at the first of two congressional hearings Tuesday on veterans care during which lawmakers expressed impatience with the Bush administration's efforts.
Report details standoffat Colorado high school
BAILEY, Colo. -- A gunman who took over a high school classroom last fall held his gun to the heads of some students as he sexually assaulted them, investigators said in a final report that contained chilling details not previously released. Duane Roger Morrison, a 53-year-old drifter, screamed and waved a handgun at his sobbing hostages at Platte Canyon High School, fired once into the air and threatened to blow up the building, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation report on the Sept. 27 standoff. Morrison shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, as a SWAT team stormed the classroom after a four-hour standoff. Five other hostages had already been released, and a sixth escaped as officers entered the room. Morrison died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though officers also shot him three times. The latest report also said Morrison took seven girls hostage; authorities earlier said six. He held guns to the heads of some female students as he sexually assaulted them and threatened to kill them if they resisted, the report said.
Senator's aide pleadsinnocent to charges
WASHINGTON -- A senior aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb pleaded innocent to weapons charges Tuesday after he reportedly entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol. Phillip Thompson, 45, was released on his own recognizance after his lawyer entered the plea. He has been charged with carrying a pistol without a license and carrying an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition. Thompson was arrested Monday when he entered the office building with a loaded pistol and two other loaded magazines in a briefcase that he placed on an X-ray machine, court documents said. He told the officer at the building's entrance that the weapon belonged to Webb. Webb said Tuesday that Thompson carried the weapon into the Russell Senate office building "completely inadvertently."
Combined dispatches